Will Ferrell

Ralph Nelson / Columbia Pictures

Funny resume: Saturday Night Live and almost everything that followed, from Elf, and Old School to Anchorman and Blades of Glory. Serious turn: He played the wound-up IRS auditor Harold Crick in 2006s Stranger Than Fiction. Did it work?: Critics were pleased, but Ferrell fans? Not so much. Fiction made just $40 million at the U.S. box office (not so good compared with more than $100 for Step Brothers.)

Funny resume: Saturday Night Live and almost everything that followed, from Elf, and Old School to Anchorman and Blades of Glory. Serious turn: He played the wound-up IRS auditor Harold Crick in 2006s Stranger Than Fiction. Did it work?: Critics were pleased, but Ferrell fans? Not so much. Fiction made just $40 million at the U.S. box office (not so good compared with more than $100 for Step Brothers.) (Ralph Nelson / Columbia Pictures)

Funny resume: Saturday Night Live and almost everything that followed, from Elf, and Old School to Anchorman and Blades of Glory. Serious turn: He played the wound-up IRS auditor Harold Crick in 2006s Stranger Than Fiction. Did it work?: Critics were pleased, but Ferrell fans? Not so much. Fiction made just $40 million at the U.S. box office (not so good compared with more than $100 for Step Brothers.)